This is something that's bugged me for a while:
Recently Mac updated OSX to have the new Mac AppStore. It was a neat little feature, I thought at first, but the more I looked the more I was reminded of the abismal Chrome Web Apps store. It's essentially just a middle-man between me and my programs.
I downloaded TextWrangler before thinking "Hang on...can't I just find TextWrangler and...install it myself?" and lo-and-behold I did. Why? Because I just want the program, not something tied to my iTunes account. When I tried to uninstall the App version I found I need to open my Trash folder and place it there rather than just drag it to the icon like I normally do, before inputting my password. A little annoying, takes about 1 second to do, but still why is that needed?
The Chrome Web Apps was an even bigger joke, essentially all (that I found) being just links to websites that I could access from ANY web browser.
So what's the deal with apps? Is it a phase or does it forbode a more DRM-ified future?
I'm teaching myself to use the terminal, even to install things (sudo-apt get etc.) and find it infinitely more satisfying (seriously, type "telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl" into command prompt and tell me you're not impressed). I love open-source software so for me the whole "app" craze is best suited to where it started - on mobiles.
Log in to comment